The IntELL
News and Updates from the ESOL office for ELL support
August 2017 Updates
This is going to be an amazing school year!
We are really looking forward to working hand in hand to ensure ELL academic success. Connecting with the district's focus on Equity Through Standards, we firmly believe in giving ELLs Equal Access to content while scaffolding for language acquisition. Our ESOL team is ready to support you with projects, best practices and resources. Please let us know if you have new ESOL admins, teachers, contacts or paraprofessionals.
Our population continues to grow and so does our collaboration with other departments. It is with much excitement that I share that we are now overseeing all ESOL, Title III, Migrant and Immigrant efforts. Through these projects we plan on supporting many students with their academic, language and cultural needs.
At this time you may begin to update ALL LY student plan dates to this current year schedule, these need to be updated in CrossPointe panel S706 by October 1st.
Because of new language in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), and based on your recommendations, I updated two ESOL Compliance Forms (soon available in Spanish). You do not have to go back and change any old forms, these are available for your use as you move forward:
- Notification of Placement and Services in the ESOL Program https://intranet.volusia.k12.fl.us/forms/Forms/2010/2010-006.pdf
- ESOL Data Input Sheet
https://intranet.volusia.k12.fl.us/forms/Forms/2009/2009-038.pdf
ESSA requires that ELLs are identified and parents notified within 30 days of initial entry into school. This is different from what we have done in the past. We have always been able to test our new students within 20 school days, therefore, I am confident that the added parent communication component will be manageable (remember to use the new form).
At this time you must review statewide assessment data to determine ESOL exit,
New approved state rule for exit reminder:
- K-2 ACCESS 2.0 data only- 4.0+ in reading & 4.0+ in overall
- 3-12 ACCESS 2.0 data- 4.0+ in Reading & 4.0+ in Overall plus FSA-ELA 3+.
Check out my video clip at the bottom of the page, that explains the exit process.
When exiting an ELL:
- LY code changes to LF
- Exit date is the last day of school 5/26/17
- Basis of exit is H,I or J depending on the grade level.
- A letter MUST be sent home and a copy kept in the green folder, follow this link for the exit letter https://schools.volusia.k12.fl.us/vcsforms/pdf2009/2009-033.pdf
NEW/NEW/NEW!!!
We heard you loud and clear!!!
ACCESS 2.0, & FSA scores are available in Data Warehouse under School Wide reports and under Teacher Reports. You will have access to all the information you need for exiting ESOL and for appropriate planning and delivery of instruction based on performance.
We are hosting a New ESOL Contacts training on August 31st, 8:30-3:30, in the Deland High School's Testing Center. This is open to Admins, Contacts, Teachers and Paraprofessionals. We will introduce you to ESOL requirements and available supports.
We will continue to provide educators access to professional development, resources, and interaction to promote leadership and advocacy in English language learning success.
Together we can!
Gianna Acevedo Alamo
Coordinator, ESOL
Volusia County Schools
Elementary ESOL support
First day back to school can be as intimidating for our teachers as it is for our students. We all can remember feeling nervous, wondering if the work was going to be hard and if the other kids would have learned things I hadn't, making me look dumb. And of course, as ELLs, we also have the issue of not only learning new materials but learning them in a whole new language!
The ELA department has incorporated many valuable resources. Among them is my favorite which can be found in the “Small Group” tab in each “Module.” This section provides complex texts which are grade appropriate. These resources are perfect for our ELLs for many reasons. For one, the articles are short enough for our ELLs to feel accomplished in a smaller amount of time without losing interest.
However, for ELLs, the role of background knowledge cannot be ignored. As part of doing a close reading of the text, teachers of ELLs need to find out how much background their students have about a text's given a topic and build background where necessary.
Building background knowledge for ELLs' definitely has its place in the Florida Standards, it is only one piece of the close reading puzzle. After we build ELLs' background knowledge as necessary, we must then focus the majority of our instruction on having students working with the text itself so that they can unlock its meaning.
Tim Shanahan is one of the prominent voices that have emerged when it comes to defining the concept of close reading as it pertains to the Common Core. Shanahan is Professor of Urban Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago and expert on ELL literacy. Shanahan stresses that close reading is not a teaching technique per se, but rather a way to place emphasis on readers figuring out a high-quality text and grapple with it.
He states that close reading plays out in the classroom by shifting instruction off of strategies and skills and onto the texts themselves and ideas presented in texts. Instead of having students focus on their own personal connection to a text (e.g., How did the story remind you of a similar time from your childhood?), instruction instead focuses students' attention on reading, interpreting, and evaluating the text. So, close reading becomes an intensive analysis of a text in order to comprehend what it says, how it says it, and what it means. By engaging in close reading throughout their education, Shanahan says students are poised to develop a rich body of knowledge about the world, and their reading practices will become ingrained "habits of mind."
Close, analytic reading stresses engaging with a text of sufficient complexity directly and examining meaning thoroughly and methodically, encouraging students to read and reread deliberately. Directing student attention on the text itself empowers students to understand the central ideas and key supporting details. It also enables students to reflect on the meanings of individual words and sentences; the order in which sentences unfold; and the development of ideas over the course of the text, which ultimately leads students to arrive at an understanding of the text as a whole. (PARCC, 2011, p. 7)
Many experts will agree that students need to read complex texts multiple times to unlock their multilayered meaning.
Shanahan suggests a particularly close reading sequence in which:
(1) The first reading allows the reader to determine what a text says,
(2) The second reading allows the reader to determine how a text works, and
(3) The third reading allows the reader to evaluate the quality and value of the text (and to connect the text to other texts).
Using close reading of texts with ELLs presents more challenges beyond balancing building background knowledge with working with the actual text. Such challenges for educators of ELLs include choosing appropriate grade level texts, scaffolding instruction, and creating text depending questions that ELLs can access. (Diane Staehr Fenner, Ph.D., president of SupportEd.)
Hope you have an awesome new year. I look forward to our collaborations. Please feel free to contact Betsy Sotomayor, 44737, or at bsotomay@volusia.k12.fl.us for support on how to “Teach, Assess, and Grade (TAG)” our English language learner students ELLs. This support can be provided either during grade level PLC or during a faculty meeting.
Secondary ESOL Support
Welcome Back Teachers! I hope you had a restful summer. We begin our new school year with the Together We Can theme. My goal is to continue to collaborate with teachers, administrators, and parents to provide the support that meets your specific needs and the needs of our students. Together We Can provide the support that will help impact students’ learning acquisition and growth. With that in mind, our district is experiencing an increase in SLIFE students- Students with Limited or Interrupted formal education. These students are an important subset of ELL students. “SLIFE usually are new to the U.S. school system and have had interrupted or limited schooling opportunities in their native country. They have limited backgrounds in reading and writing in their native language(s) and are below grade level in most academic skills (Freeman & Freeman, 2002).” The link below provides valuable information about SLIFE students as well as strategies and accommodations that addresses the unique needs of these students.
https://www.wida.us/get.aspx?id=848
The ESOL office has additional resources to help support SLIFE students. Please contact our office if you have students that meet this criterion.
System 44 Save the Date
We will be conducting a System44/Read 180 training on September 7, 2017. More information forthcoming.
Collections for ELLs
The ESOL department purchased supplemental materials for the Collections curriculum taught in all ELA classes. These resources are aligned to the ACCESS 2.0 and The WIDA CAN Do Descriptors. They provide teachers with lessons that correlate with their Collections text book. These resources will help teachers accommodate and differentiate the Collections curriculum based on each student’s language proficiency level. Please check with your department head, Reading Coach or textbook administrator to see where the materials are being housed. Please feel free to contact the ESOL office if you have any questions.
Resources
http://smmry.com/ Summarizes Text
SMMRY's mission is to provide an efficient manner of understanding text, which is done primarily by reducing the text to only the most important sentences. SMMRY accomplishes its mission by:
• Ranking sentences by importance using the core algorithm.
• Reorganizing the summary to focus on a topic; by selection of a keyword.
• Removing transition phrases.
• Removing unnecessary clauses.
• Removing excessive examples.
http://rewordify.com Simplify difficult English
Rewordify.com is powerful, free, online software that improves reading, learning, and teaching. This site can:
Intelligently simplify difficult English, for faster comprehension
Effectively teach words, for building a better vocabulary
Help teachers save time and produce engaging lessons
Help improve learning outcomes
Rewordify.com simplifies difficult English. Enter hard sentences (or whole chapters) into the yellow box at the top of the page. (You can also enter a web site URL.) Click Rewordify text and you'll instantly see an easier version, for fast understanding. The reworded words are highlighted— click them to hear and learn the original harder word. You can change how the highlighting works to match the way you learn!
Do you dislike dictionaries because they're confusing and unhelpful? You'll love Rewordify.com's clear, easy-to-understand definitions—they change to match the original word or phrase's part of speech, verb tense, and singular/plural form, so they make sense.
Have a wonderful 2017-18 School Year!
Sandra Quijano
ESOL Family Engagement
Welcome back! It is exciting to have students back in the classroom filling them with energy and enthusiasm for learning. I am a big believer in communicating with parents and building a strong relationship between home and school. This is one of the key factors in increasing our ELL student achievement. I am thrilled with the opportunity to support Discovery Elementary with their new project to encourage parents to engage in school. We have many great ideas to assist parents and create that kind of relationship. I also want to recognize our ESOL parents from Starke Elementary by accomplishing their goals of completing their high school diploma. This year, I am available to continue supporting your school and encouraging our parents to be engaged in their student's education. I am providing you a list of topics below that I have available in Spanish and that I can bring to your schools:
How to communicate with teachers?
K-5 Expectations
WIDA
What is ESOL?
Bullying
Self-Esteem
Strategies to help my child to study
Developing reading skills
Communicating with my child
Others (Based on your school needs)
We believe that our ELLs can achieve at high levels. We are committed to support our students. At the end of September 2017, the ESOL Department will be providing afterschool tutoring for our ELL’s to improve their literacy skills. For further information please feel free to email me or contact me at my ext. 44738.
I look forward to work with you this year 2017-18. Have a great positive year!
Ines Ramos Feliciano
ESOL/ Migrant Office Staff
Gianna Acevedo Alamo
Coordinator, ESOL
E-mail ghaceved@volusia.k12.fl.us
Betsy Sotomayor
ESOL TOA - Elementary
Email bsotomay@volusia.k12.fl.us
Sandra Quijano
ESOL TOA - Secondary
E-mail squijano@volusia.k12.fl.us
Ines Ramos-Feliciano
ESOL TOA - Parenting
E-mail iramosfe@volusia.k12.fl.us
Sonia Rodriguez
Office Specialist
E-mail serodrig@volusia.k12.fl.us
Jennipher Nieves
Migrant Recruiter/Data Clerk
E-mail jsnieves@volusia.k12.fl.us
Website: https://intranet.volusia.k12.fl.us/departments/federal-programs-grants/title-III-esol/Pages/default.aspx
Location: Highbanks Learning Center, East Highbanks Road, DeBary, FL, United States
Phone: 386 734-7190
Twitter: @vcs_ESOL